Sunday, April 27, 2008

My Quest for the Strangest Fruit

I just came across a story about an interesting fruit, known as the mangosteen, which was forbidden in the US until last year. I've been wanting to try the mangosteen (shown above) for a while now, but I guess I just need a little incentive to get off my butt and go look for one. (According to the New York Times, they can generally be found in gourmet grocery stores and supermarkets that specialize in Asian goods.)

So I'm proposing a "forbidden fruit" scavenger hunt. Over the next few weeks, I plan to hunt down and sample each of the following:

i heard mangosteens are really expensive in NYC, like $45 per pound. my friend tried one when she was in Thailand, and said that it was sweet and sort of sour and tasted like a mixture of strawberry, peach and ice cream...

I've been wanting to try some weird fruits for a while now. Imagine at lunch: *Sigh* I have an apple. *Sigh* I have a banana. *Sigh* I have an asian fruit that was banned from the US until last year...

Lara: Not because of the fruit itself, but because of the bugs and other pests that might make it to the US inside the fruit. They've started irradiating the fruit to kill any pests it might be harboring.

rambutans are pretty common in dallas, texas in asian stores, but in NC, you cant find anything but lychee(which is delicious, I cant believe it was on fear factor...)Gosh, im missing out on so many exotic goodies T__T

logan!! (love that stuff, but if you eat too much of it, it'll make your nose bleed XD Their actual translation is "Dragon Eye) All I know it that Taiwan has ALOT of weird fruits! And Catgirl, I LOVE RAMBUTANS TOO! My cousin has a yangmei tree in her backyard! Have you considered star fruit?? Ohh ohh! What about "saturn peach??" (it's shaped kinda like the ring of saturn, a flat peach, another one of China's weird products, lol But if your're searching for a picyure of it, I reckon you not, it has many different names it's literal translation from Chinese it "flat peach")Erm.. budda's hand?? (never tried it) Uhh... (what I'm about to say is not a fruit, but it's really weird!)Threr's a mushroom that has hair growing outta it, no it's not growing mold. It's kinda creepy and it taste's funny (my dad likes it). It tastes like you're swallowing a furball. Well, it looks like a fur ball.

I've had dragon's eye. My mom got it from where she works. She works at this place where artists and writers from the US and the world come and work. Hey, you could come ananka! that would be so awesome!http://www.vermontstudiocenter.org/

Ananka: Oh, right.....have you heard of Durian??? I had the chance to try it but i just couldnt bring myself to. There is NO WAY you would find it here, tho because they are not even allowed to transport around SE Asia, i think.

About Me

I'm the author of the Kiki Strike book series (plus a few other things) and co-author (with Jason Segel) of the Nightmares! book series.
This is my old blog. If you want to know what's happening now, check out kirstenmillerbooks.com!